The Green Party is promising a $6000 grant and interest-free loan of $30,000 for owners to improve housing stock. Photo / 123ref, File
The Green Party is promising a $6000 grant and interest-free loan of $30,000 for owners to improve housing stock. Photo / 123ref, File
Cold comfort from grant
I doubt many would find the Greens’ healthy homes offer of a $6000 grant and an interest-free loan of $30,000, to be repaid through rates over 10 years, attractive. The estimated power bill savings of $700 per year is weighed against the $3000 annualdebt repayment required over 10 years. The $2300 annual cost greatly exceeds the $700 annual power savings/ benefit gained. And then this would be likely to depreciate the value of the home given the next owner must take over the liability. Purchasers are likely to deduct any remaining cost from the purchase price. People urgently need affordable new homes that are constructed fit for purpose from the outset. The way to ensure this is through public/private housing partnerships in beautiful new greenfield areas where people’s other needs are also met, such as parks, schools and other amenities within walking or biking distance. Retrofit and intensification that is not sensibly meeting all human needs or the reality of things likely result in higher costs, traffic congestion and ultimately cost to people’s well-being, and is mere posturing. People need comprehensive well thought-out town plans for our current and future generations and not this kind of false idealism that does more harm than good. Victoria Lowe, Shamrock Park.
Produce the goods
The cost of taking GST off fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables is estimated at $2 billion over four years or $500 million a year. The estimated benefit to households varies between $2 to $5 per week. Increasing the in-work tax credit and lifting the Working for Families abatement threshold is expected to apply to 140,000 lower-income households. Therefore, it is reasonable to presume that 140,000 households qualify for Working for Families. Five hundred million per year divided by 140,000 equates to $68.68 per week per qualifying household if GST was retained on fruit and vegetables and redistributed to those lower-income families who need it most. And also, there’s your wealth tax, cost-effective, efficient and fair. The choice is simple, either $2 to $5 per week or over $68. It’s not rocket science. Lloyd McIntosh, West Harbour.
If the benefit of no GST on fruit and vegetables is $5 a week per family with the cost of administering that extra, by millions of dollars, why doesn’t the Government leave GST as it is and give every family $5 a week by allowing them to claim $260 a year off their tax. No taxpayer cost - same outcome. Chester Rendell, Paihia.
Illustration / Rod Emmerson
Imitation nation
Part of Labour’s reasoning for removing GST from fresh fruit and vegetables is that most countries who have a value-added tax do not charge it on these food items. If we apply that logic, then NZ should have a comprehensive capital gains tax, the same as those other countries. Peter D Graham, Helensville.
Having worked in lower-decile schools for many years, I can tell Glen Stanton (NZ Herald, August 14) that the students eating chippies and processed snacks (costing several times the price of an apple or carrot) are not going to suddenly eat more fruit and veg simply because GST has been dropped. Most of these families are not well off. S. Palmer Mt. Albert.
Cropping tool
There is plenty of fruit free from the trees. Fruit falls from the trees everywhere and rots because there is so much ready at the same time. It would help families much more if GST was taken from cereals, bread, milk, butter and cheese. These items are very expensive and so needed for families. D. Hoekstra, Henderson.
Rock of wages
I see that Labour has promised an increase in the Working For Families payment if elected in November. If they were sincere they could have increased it now instead of offering it as an election bribe. But regardless it is a bad move. The lower-paid see it as a boost to their income. Their employers see it as a boost to their income because it takes the pressure off wage bargaining. It socialises the cost and privatises the profit. How crazy is that? We need higher wages, not more welfare. A more meaningful announcement would have been to increase the minimum wage. Alan Jenkinson, One Tree Hill.
Missed call
It is great that someone rescued Willow, the toddler who wandered away from home, and kept her in a safe environment. And wonderful that so many turned out to help look for her. But I do think the police perhaps missed an opportunity to impress on people, through the media, that the best thing to do if they find a child in such circumstances is to call 111 immediately. The police are in the best position to act on such information and speedily reunite the child with their loved ones. Di Monkley, Hamilton.
Cities getting spongier (NZ Herald, August 14), with more green spaces and vegetation to soak up more rain, would be a good thing. The Mercier report suggests a range of actions, right down to “replacing driveways and compacted lawns with trees and shrubs”. The current Government has done the opposite by erroneously mandating infill housing across all of Auckland, and Auckland Council is complicit. The council’s Future Development Strategy is inconsistent by proposing brakes on greenfield developments where stormwater and other infrastructure are inadequate or expensive, while not doing the same for existing suburbs prone to flooding. In recent public meetings, council experts have advised Mt Roskill, Sandringham, Balmoral and Epsom residents to expect more flooding but refuse to acknowledge that more infill housing in these areas and further up their catchments will worsen the intensity and/or frequency of flooding events. Council is proposing to spend over $1 billion (which it hasn’t got) to mitigate the effects of future flooding events while, having been pushed by Government to do so, filling over existing greenspaces with more houses and driveways. While being spongier makes sense, what is actually happening does not. Greg McKeown, Mt Eden.
Critical mass
City planners know that when a city reaches one million it requires a second form of public transport. Sydney reached one million in 1926, the same year their first electric trains came into use. They also included a double train track over the harbour bridge when it was being planned in the 1920s. Back in New Zealand, mayor Dove-Myer Robinson and the planners knew when Auckland would reach one million and light rail was planned for the city in the late 1960s. It seems we are stepping back 50 years when the National Party won’t face the fact that Auckland needs a passenger rail system. We don’t have a choice if Auckland is to be a workable city in the future, and it will never be cheaper to build than now. Helen Millward, Leamington.
Fair go, mate
Comments such as “it’s hard to support the Aussies in any code at any level”(regarding which team to support in the Fifa Woman’s World Cup) are incredibly small-minded and highlight New Zealand’s embarrassing inferiority complex regarding Australia. Nobody would wish a best friend a lack of success, so why would anyone feel that way about our closest neighbour, friend, and co-host, rather than be full of praise for their wonderful efforts and success so far? I’m a proud Kiwi, with two proud Kiwi children. I also have a proud Australian wife and a proud Australian daughter (simply by virtue of where we lived at her birth). I support both of my daughters’ countries equally when they are against anyone other than each other. Good-natured jesting aside, Kiwis often demonstrate a negative attitude to Australia that is not reciprocated and frankly is embarrassing when there is so much that we could learn from our neighbours, beneficial to both. It just makes New Zealand seem petty. Scott Clare, Whitianga.
Rugged tackling
Your correspondent D.B. Hill (NZ Herald, August 14) complains, quite rightly so, about the turgidity of the England vs Wales game over the weekend. What I would complain about was the head-high tackle by the England captain, Owen Farrell, resulting in a yellow, and then red, card. Farrell has a long history of this shoulder charge (no arms!) on the heads of opponents. In November 2018 he committed the exact same tackle on Springbok centre Andre Esterhuizen. He escaped penalty for this. Then this year in January in a club game he was at it again and received a suspension of three games. Clearly he had not learnt his lesson, for he perpetrated this vicious tackle against Welsh flanker Taine Basham last week-end. If he is not suspended for at least four games I would be very surprised. Chris Parker, Campbells Bay.
Short & sweet
On GST
Labour promised us a “bread and butter” focused campaign. But there would still be GST on bread and butter. What happened? Nick Hamilton, Remuera.
Reduce GST to 10 per cent from September 1 - that way everybody benefits. A much fairer and easier way to help everyone with the cost of living increases. Pauline Murray, Henderson.
On billboards
It’s amazing how instantly election billboards spring up overnight. If only politicians moved that quickly once elected. Tony Cooper, Mt Albert.
On justice
Predators get cultural reports, but victims of crime do not. Sounds fair to me. C. C. McDowall, Rotorua.
On platitudes
I “definitely” think it is “very important” we “absolutely” refrain from such mindless and repetitive phraseology. John Norris, Whangamatā.
On vaping
Vaping may or may not help people stop smoking but, quite frankly, I think that’s irrelevant when judged against the insidious, unethical and purely profit-driven way it attracts children. Robin Stevens, Somerville.
A $40k send-off for a government worker in the Pacific People Ministry - no wonder migrants are flocking to NZ. Highly paid jobs for real skills are what NZ is missing and those people are fed up and leaving. Tens of thousands of people who can’t communicate very well and have poor comprehension, have few skills and are fodder for many identity scams, etc, and are being picked up by gangs and criminals and subcontractors who pay no tax. There is no good coming out of it for law-abiding people. Too many people with little skills are allowed to come to NZ, are taking up housing, social services, education, health, super and transport - Government don’t care - doesn’t even bother to check the work and skill levels coming and going. Ghost jobs galore. You can convert a ghost job to ACC at 80 per cent of the ghost salary if you have an accident. Virginia S.
Wait to see what happens if Labour gets in again. You won’t see Kiwis for dust. Andy G.
I expect more to leave if National win. Their property policies will squeeze people out even more. Wayne P.
New Zealand are losing their best and brightest, only to be replaced by very low-income earners. Should be okay for fruit growers, but not for the future of NZ. From my wider family of 28 adults, since the beginning of the year most have left for Australia, only four remain. I am looking at moving to Australia in the next six months once I have sold my house. Patrick G.
Mind you, with Anthony Albanese at the Aussie helm, they are spiralling down the same path as us so it could become almost as bad - only almost because the Aussies are a lot less tolerant than us and will deal them out quick-smart. Mark W.
